The University of Southern Mississippi is creating a new plan, and is calling for all members of the community to help.
Last week, president Dr. Joe Paul announced that the university was creating a new strategic plan. A university’s strategic plan is a detailed guide for how the institution can best manage its affairs and fulfill its mission. Strategic planning is a time for the university to reflect on its own performance and prepare for the future. A strategic planning committee, usually consisting of faculty and administrators, leads the charge. But planning requires input from members of the campus community, including students.
As part of this plan, he encouraged students, faculty, staff and alumni at USM to complete a survey, due Feb. 15. “Information from this survey will be shared with the committee and used in the development of goals, strategies and measures,” the announcement explained.
The survey asks different questions depending on the person’s relationship to the school: student, employee, alumnus, or “friend of the university.” For current students, the survey asks about how to handle issues like recruitment and mental health. It also asks students to describe life at the university and how they think it can improve.
Paul and provost Dr. Lance Nail each gave statements on the importance of the survey. “This is critical work for our institution, and I look forward to how this process sets Southern Miss up for an even brighter future,” Paul wrote.
“I am grateful for the work of the Steering Committee and Sub-Committees, as this planning process will certainly impact the future of Southern Miss in many ways,” wrote Nail.
The Strategic Planning Steering Committee consists of faculty, staff, and administrators from across the university’s departments and campuses. Dr. Eric Powell, professor and director of the Gulf Coast’s Science Center for Marine Fisheries is one of the committee’s two co-chairs.
“For the university to grow and evolve and get better and move into the future, it needs to identify what it’s doing well and what it’s not doing well,” he said. “Every big organization…has a plan going forward about where that organization wants to go.”
Dr. Powell said that students should fill out the survey for the chance to make a difference for future generations of students at USM.
The committee also has six subcommittees, each representing a different general issue. Dr. Joshua Bernstein is chair of the academic enterprise subcommittee. He’s also an associate professor of English and president-elect to the faculty senate.
“The strategic plan is really the blueprint for the university,” he explained. “It guides the kinds of decisions the university makes…And that affects students in just about every aspect of their lives as students at the university.”
Each subcommittee generated a series of questions and data needs covering their topic. To gather more information, the committee’s first action was to send out the survey about the issues that they needed more information on.
The survey is part of the Analysis/Development Phase of the strategic plan timeline. According to Dr. Powell, a final plan should be released in mid-March.